Her hand trembles, and I know I’ve got her, even if her bravado doesn’t match the visible panic fluttering in her pulse. “Couldn’t you let me go instead?”
“Not gonna happen.” Apprehension flashes behind her eyes, masking her fear of me. “Either shoot me or get your ass back in the shower.”
As she contemplates her decision, my hand flies out to cuff her wrist. She strains against the grip and locks her elbow so the gun points to the ceiling. I shove her rigid arm sideways at the very second she pulls the trigger.
It clicks, already emptied of bullets. My temper instantly flips to nuclear. Whether she meant to do it or not, she had actually fired the gun. I knew there weren’t any bullets left.
But she didn’t.
I snatch it from her shaky hand and chuck it against the wall. Then hunch over and unsheathe a small bone knife I wear strapped to my shin.
“Tomás,” she pants. “I… I… didn’t mean to…”
As I stalk forward, she reverses into the shower. Water sluices over the swell of her breasts. Power courses through my veins. All the fucked up events of the evening run riot in my mind. I’m on the verge of losing myself and doing something eternally damning.
She slams a hand to my chest in a pathetic attempt to halt my temper from breaking. Too late. The touch of her dainty hand on my skin sets alight every toxic cell in my body. Her kindling warmth sucks me into a vortex.
Out of control splashes dive to our feet, so they aren’t a witness to my fraying control. I hook the blade under the top button of her dress, next to her braless breasts. Indecent chills almost cripple me.
My dick throbs for this woman, so painfully solid. Perhaps fate had thrown us together for the greater good—for a reason far beyond death and destruction. I cut the threads in vertical succession. Buttons ping and the fabric splays open to reveal prickled flesh and plump tits.
Fuck!
In a flash, I wrench the sopping dress from her shoulders and let it fall. I catch a glimpse of the healed gunshot snick on her bicep, the one I had given her. The war wound that saved her life. An emotion similar to regret squeezes my motives to fuck her. This isn’t one-sided and I’m too far gone to stop.
The next to come off are the feminine panties protecting her innocence. A snip of lace at either side of her angular hips and they plop to our feet in a dirty puddle.
My gaze slides from her parted lips to the swirl of Papá’s blood flowing into the drain. Nausea creeps up from my stomach, forcing my palm to the glossy tiles at my side for support.
I cup her chin and force her wide gaze to meet mine. “I shot the last bullet into the sky as a precaution.” My voice is thick with the mania she’s injected me with. “Want to know what that precaution was?”
She returns my stare, naked and hellishly beautiful. “Yes,” she whispers so softly I could have easily missed it had I not surveyed her mouth closely.
“To stop me from using it on you. After tonight, there’s nothing left of my soul,little liar. I’m numb inside except for the sick urge to sink my dick inside something pure. To spoil your untouched pussy and to know I’m the man who owns that title.” Her nipples poke out and her skin bristles. “Had it been anyone else, they’d be floating face down in my pool by now… but you… you’re something else. You’re bad fucking news and I’m this close to...” I squeeze her jaw, my eyes narrowing on the lip she dents with her teeth. “It can't be a coincidence you were in that alleyway. I’ll figure it out. That’s the only reason you’re still alive.”
As I lie to her face, she pants in feathery puffs that tingle over my skin. I stand firm, getting off on her nakedness. Her knees quake and she see-saws into me, as if fighting a hot-blooded reaction to our close proximity. Clean fingers curl tightly to stop herself from touching my fiendishly hot skin.
She’s alive, because I’m going to finish what she started at the plantation a few months ago. Tonight I need to use her body as my salvation. It’s either that, or my kingdom would fall to shit around my breakdown. Rather than fail during my first night stepping up from my father, I’ll pour my all into the little liar I have as my captive.
After an age of staring at her, I drop all contact and dip out from under the warm waterfall. My retreat receives an audible sigh—a sexy gasp that could be misconstrued as disappointment.
I glance back and witness her naughty tongue peek free as searching eyes linger on my ass. It sweeps the contour of glistening pink lips. That simple act invites a welcome memory to return. How she had willingly stuffed her throat full of my dick. Instantly, my heavy dick twitches. I’m alive inside, my veins buzzing with a hunger I never knew existed.
If the men downstairs could see how this woman is affecting me, they’d certainly doubt my ability to rule as a cutthroat leader. Over the years, I’ve earned a reputation as an emotionally detached businessman and now that I have an important role to fulfill, it’s even more crucial I maintain that persona. Yet Carina’s presence both calms my inner turmoil and incites confusion.
I move to the vanity where my stash of condoms is kept and toss the carton to the floor for her to see. A dainty hand presses to the wall tiles. Rather than move further away, she waits in the shower with proud nipples and a provocative stance. Her hip dips and an expression of intrigue draws her gaze the length of my bare chest. For all my threats, she’s showing zero resistance, which makes this all the more fun.
In the seconds we’re apart, I curse myself for allowing the distraction. Uncle Angelo’s voice speaks to me, his warning loud and clear.Don’t give them what they want, give them what you need. On your terms. Make them wait.
The memory of him floods my mind, made worse when I see myself in the mirror. Papá’s blood streaks my left cheekbone. Shadows dance over pale features, and the stubble coating my jaw seems darker than before. I look haunted. Horrific. Unkempt. Nothing like I should.
Following habit, I rinse my hands under the faucet with scalding water to cleanse away my sins. They follow me everywhere, because that’s who I am.
The dark angel of death.
“Tomás?” A feminine voice infiltrates the inner whirlwind, grinding my bones to ashes.
I glance sideways to witness the gap close from her body to mine. Her forehead creases as she stops before me and takes a quick breath. What she does next has me riddled with sadism and left breathless from an unhealthy fascination.